"What's going on girls?" - in northern accent

This blog post will be a scattered coverage of the most important bits of this year's winter Love Island.

No, not the bickering that came from Tanyel picking Ron at the re-coupling, and not the drama that erupted after the truth or dare game. The really important bits, the bits where the boys called an end to the toxic masculinity trope on national TV and the girls finally master to politics of Casa Amor.

The boys cry, the girls laugh, the boys scream out to Jessie, they scream out to Tanya. fuck it! They even scream out to Tanyel who left 5 episodes ago!

Whilst the girls make eyes and reapply their Fenty lip gloss for the shiny, new, still in the packet, tall, dark and handsome who just came through the doors.

Tall, dark and handsome:“So what’s everyone's situation”

Olivia: “Im coupled up with … I forgot his name!! Kai!”

Whilst next door Kai counts out loud all of Olivia’s virtues.

Ron: “Im not even gonna ask you who you have your eye on???”

Ron head: “it’s me, it’s me right? Please say its me!”

Brown, racially ambiguous, stretch marked beauty: “Everyone!”

Casey the self-acclaimed Bradley Cooper look-alike is seen talking to someone that looks a bit more like us. Her melanin is glowing in the sticky, plastic, rose-gold sun. Something we have never seen!

Whilst neighbour Tanya is bed hopping from Shaq to Marvin, black love is doing well on a show where producers were once unaware it existed. It's refreshing to see a Love Island interracial pairing which does not consist of a white-passing, biracial guy and an unknowingly fetishizing girl, who can't bite her tongue on the 'how cute will our babies be' talk.

The one when the boys get it right.

Past love island vacationers were hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons, a leading reason being the cast’s love affair with toxic masculinity.

This love island has created a new set of healthy male tropes for reality tv. We shared the emotion when Tom and Shaq cried into each other's arms, we laughed at Will, Tom and Casey’s sugar-rushed tickle fights and we pitied Kai and Ron for the sadness they displayed for being on the outskirts of the friendship group.

The singletons I saw in these few episodes felt authentic, well-rounded and diverse. Diversity is not just down to having a couple black people, and one person with a waist size over a size 12 (this is still yet to happen), it is also about presenting the diversity in someone's character. Lets take Ron for example. Ron kicked off the series with an extremely negative reputation on the show, but was allowed by producers to have one of the most genuine character arcs I have seen on the show. We got to see the other boys hold him accountable for his misbehaviour and eventually support him in crafting the perfect partner for Lana. I put emphasis on the term 'allowed by producers' as they choose who and who isn't allowed those flowery character arcs and it tends to only be our 'perfect girls and boys next-door'. Not our biracial Londoner Zara or our bisexual sex-worker Megan from season 4.